Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Every time that we visit Taipei, we just felt that something's missing if we didn't eat at Shinyeh. Even though they are popular with tourists nowadays, their restaurants are still thronging with locals. Their magical touches to simple Taiwanese home cooked dishes never fail to impress me. Shinyeh is a Taiwanese Restaurant that serves traditional Taiwanese dishes with standards that couldn't be found elsewhere. Their remarkably delicious yet simple dishes are by no means coincidental. Mrs Lee Xiu Ying, Shinyeh's lady boss, manage the restaurant business by insisting on innovating, starting with their suppliers and also the specific way they cook traditional Taiwanese dishes. Although, dishes in Shinyeh looked simple, but once you taste it, you'll not dispute when they call the dishes their own.

There are many branches but we always end up visiting the Zhong Xiao branch just because it's near the shopping belt of Hsin Yi district and therefore, always near to HY's choice of hotel. This branch is on the 2nd floor and also one of the favorite of Ade's. Ade is Eat Eat Eat group's 'Taipei Tong', Taipei expert as she was posted to Taipei to work for 2 years and knew the place inside out.

One cannot leave Shinyeh without trying their 地瓜粥 Sweet Potato Porridge.This is usually our staple to go with the rest of the dishes that we order. In Taipei, the sweet potato was exceptionally sweet, soft and yet not mushy. All this made possible with fresh local Taiwanese produce. It's free flow with one order.

金瓜米粉 Fried Vermicelli with Pumpkin is another carbo dish that would not mind loading. Although it's stir fried, it still taste light and not a sign of greasiness. The bits of sweet pumpkin made this dish unique. It was only HY and me eating and we were arguing about us not enjoying the rest of the dishes if we have too much carbo, our porridge and this plate of fried vermicelli. In the end, it wasn't a problem at all. The camel in me came through .....

正宗菜蒲蛋 Fried Egg with Dried Turnip. This is just perfectly browned omelette with home made dried turnip. I can have this over and over again with their porridge. A little greasy but that why it goes very well with the porridge that takes away the greasiness.

煎豬肝 Wok Seared Pork Liver with Coriander. When we were eating at Shinyeh's Mitsukoshi branch and Ade saw my Facebook post, she said 'You didn't try my favorite?'. So this was it. Ade's favorite and also what our gynae prescribe for HY. Our cool gynae asked HY to take more iron rich food, like pork liver, as she was diagnosed to be slightly anaemic. When I ask out of queasiness whether it's OK for pregnant ladies to take the perfectly cooked pork liver, which is half cooked, he shot back at me, "Overcooked Pork Liver won't taste nice anymore." and he stop short at that. Sorry I digressed, but the pork liver at Shinyeh would be a pork liver fan's fantasy. Big slices, tender, and yummy. Portion was generous. We were OD-ed with this as we like pork liver but there was simply too much for 2 person.

五香雞卷 Deep Fried Pork Roulade with Coriander. The roulade had chunks of meat rather than minced meat that my mum and aunties cooked them. It was good but I don't think anyone one I ate so far beats my 2nd Aunty's fried pork roulade. I want to learn from her but don't know when that will happen.

手打杏仁豆腐 Sweetened Almond Jelly with Peach in Syrup. This looked like the normal almond jelly that we have here but don't be fooled. The almond jelly had the texture of mochi unlike the typical ones we see here in Singapore which are jelly base. The mochi texture gave it a springy bite. HY loved this. I bought the recipe book from Shinyeh but I still fail to get a good texture and it was really tough to prepare this jelly. The Shinyeh in Singapore has this dessert on the menu as well but I have not try it yet. Wonder how it compares to this one.